“I was working to support this family! To build something for our future!”
“A future I never wanted,” he said coldly. “I wanted a wife who would be here, not some career-obsessed woman who put business before family.”
The hypocrisy was breathtaking. Damon worked twelve-hour days at his law firm, traveled constantly for cases, and had missed more of Ava’s milestones than I had. But somehow, my ambition was the problem.
“So you decided to upgrade to a better model?” I looked at Bianca, who was watching our confrontation with undisguised satisfaction.
“I decided to be with someone who understood what I needed,” Damon replied. “Someone who knows how to be a proper wife and mother.”
“Someone who inherited a trust fund and never had to work a day in her life, you mean.”
Bianca’s laugh was like poisoned honey. “Oh, Elise. Still so bitter. Did you really think you could keep a man like Damon satisfied with your… limited charms?”
She looked me up and down dismissively, taking in my travel-wrinkled clothes and exhausted appearance. I’d flown straight from a business meeting in Tokyo, spending fourteen hours on planes to surprise my family.
“At least I earned everything I have,” I shot back. “I didn’t spread my legs for my sister’s husband to get it.”
“Enough!” Damon stepped between us, but his protective stance was all for Bianca. “You’re upsetting Ava.”
I looked at my daughter, who was indeed staring at us with wide, frightened eyes. My heart broke all over again.
“I’m sorry, baby,” I whispered, kneeling down to her level. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Ava shrank back against Bianca, and I felt my soul die a little more.
“Please leave,” Damon said quietly. “You’re only making this harder on everyone.”
“Everyone except me, you mean.”
“You brought this on yourself, Elise. If you’d been the wife I needed, this never would have happened.”
The victim-blaming was the final straw. I stood slowly, feeling something fundamental shift inside me. The desperate, pleading woman who’d spent five years begging for her husband’s attention was dying, and someone harder, colder, was taking her place.
